We stayed in the Vesterbro district, dining at a restaurant called Bob. Tall bearded Danes walked by, bikes rattled past, and scantily dressed ladies in thigh-high boots tried to attract the attention of passing car drivers.

The next day we went to the Music Museum. I’d heard about their klangen room, where you can play a variety of musical instruments as loudly as you like in a sound-proofed room, as well as explore their fantastic collections.

I’d taken the story of Tycho and his golden nose to a London school workshop a couple of years ago, and even stayed on his island eighteen years before, writing a feature about it for the London Evening Standard, but this visit started out as a holiday jaunt. Once again the island worked its intriguing magic and I still want to know more …

The yellow bikes – the island’s main form of transport – were still there, the fields were dotted with golden flowers, peacock butterflies basked in the sunshine. After listening to some taped 16C lute music in the Summerhouse of Senses (as you do), I met up with Karin, a guide at the Tycho Brahe Museum, and we were soon in the underground site of one of Tycho’s observatories called Stjerneborg, or Starry Castle …